Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Prayer

Prayer Before the Eucharistic Christ

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

I know that numerous popular devotions held in church
before the Blessed Sacrament have been swept away as by a tornado. I know that
in the laudable effort to highlight the Eucharistic Liturgy and therefore
emphasize the altar, the tabernacle has been almost put out of sight, hidden
away, as though Christ's Eucharistic Presence continuing after Mass and between
Masses were something to be apologized for. I know there are speakers and
writers who say things about the Real Presence which obscure the fact that
Jesus Christ is really, truly and substantially present in the Blessed
Sacrament not only during Mass or at Communion time but all the time, as long
as the sacred elements remain.

For all of these and other painfully urgent reasons we
could not spend our reflective time more profitably than to ask ourselves why
every believing Catholic should make it a practice to pray as much as he can
before the Blessed Sacrament on the altar.

Faith in the Incarnation

The most fundamental reason why prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament is so meritorious is because it is prayer arising from faith in the
cardinal mystery of Christianity, which is faith in the Incarnation. In the
famous sixth chapter of John's gospel wherein the Savior predicted the
Eucharist, the whole first part of that chapter is on faith in him as the
Incarnate Son of God. When, therefore, we pray before the Eucharist, whether we
advert to it or not, whether we even think of it or not, we are professing in
the depths of our souls our faith in Jesus Christ as the natural, only begotten
Son of the Father.

Faith in the Real Presence

Another reason why prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is
so praiseworthy is because it is a profession of faith in the real bodily
presence of Jesus under the sacramental veils. On the same occasion when the
Savior foretold the Eucharist he so intertwined two objects of faith as to make
them almost inseparable. Let me change it - so closely did he intertwine
them that for all time they remain inseparable: faith in his divinity and faith
in his Eucharistic humanity, otherwise known as the Real Presence. He who was
conceived, who preached and worked miracles throughout Palestine, who died on
the cross on Calvary, rose from the dead an ascended to his Father at
Jerusalem; is the same Jesus who was there in a definite geographic locality is
not there also in a definite geographic place in whatever city or town where
the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. This is the Christ of history and the Christhow
I like to say itof geography.

If, as the apostle tells us, without faith no one can
please God, so without faith no one can hope to obtain anything from God. On
both counts the believer who prays before the Eucharist is a believer indeed.
He believes that Jesus Christ is the man from Nazareth, but that this man is
the eternal God. He further believes that this same Jesus who is God made man
is present as man on earth today: that he is only feet away from me when I pray
before him; that in the Eucharist he has the same human body and soul, hands,
feet, and Sacred Heart as he has now in heaven.

Once we establish the fact of faith that the same Jesus is
in the Eucharist as was on earth in New Testament times, it is not difficult to
appreciate the third reason why prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is so
efficacious. As we read the pages of the Gospels we are struck by the
Immaculata marvelous power that Christ's humanity had in effecting changes in
the persons who came into contact with him.

When the woman with the hemorrhage who had been ill for a
dozen years came up behind Jesus, she said to herself, If I can even
touch his clothes I shall be well again. She touched his clothes and was
instantly healed. Mark makes a significant observation about Jesus:
Immediately, he says, Christ was aware that power had gone
out from him.

This, humanity, as we know, operates in many ways, but it
acts nowhere more effectivelyand I wish to add, miraculouslythan
through the human nature that is substantially united to the divinity in the
Blessed Sacrament.

One of the best ways to look at prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament is to see it as an extension of Holy Communion. Christ himself could
not have been plainer when he called himself the Bread of Life and
told us to eat his Body and drink his Blood. What we may overlook, however, is
that the spiritual nourishment that comes from the Eucharist does not end with
Holy Communion .As we pray before the Blessed Sacrament our souls are fed by
the Person of the Savior in the two faculties of spirit that need to be
constantly fed. They are the mind and the will. In the mind we need light; in
the will we need strength. And both needs are met in an extraordinary way
through earnest prayer before the Eucharist.

All we need to do is to believe sufficiently, to come to
him in the Blessed Sacrament and ask very simply, Lord, teach me. I'm
dumb. And that is no exaggeration! Your servant is listening and
ready to learn.

In the will we need strength to supply for the notorious
weakness that by now we are almost ashamed to call our own. How well it is that
other people do not know how really stupid and weak we are. What a precious
secret! But again, is it not the same Christ who encouraged the disciples, who
braced up the faltering Peter and promised to be with us all days? That promise
is to be taken literally. He is here. Jesus is here telling us today,
Peace I bequeath to you. My own peace I give you. Thanks, Lord, I
sure need it!

The final and in a way most important reason why prayer
before the Blessed Sacrament is so important is that when we pray before the
Eucharist we have before us in human form the principal reason for our existence,
which is the all-loving God.

St. Margaret Mary was chosen by Providence, as Christ told
her, principally to restore to a loveless world the practice of the love of
God. What was the principal means that she was to tell the faithful to use to
restore this neglected love? It was devotion to the Blessed Sacrament where, as
the Savior complained, in the greatest manifestation of his love he is most
neglected and forgotten, and worst of all by souls who are consecrated to him
by the sacred bonds of the priesthood and religious life. I cannot think of
anything that the Catholic Church, especially in our day, needs more than
thousands of souls in every walk of life who pray daily before the Blessed
Sacrament, telling God who is there in the flesh in the Eucharist how much they
love him and asking him for the most important favor we can ask of God: to love
him still more.

The above article is a
condensation of a chapter from
Fr. John A. Hardon's bookTHEOLOGY OF PRAYER, published by
the Daughters of St. Paul.
This material is reprinted with the kind permission
of the author.